The present invention relates to data processing apparatus, having input devices, a storage device, a processing device and output devices. The present invention also relates to a method of processing data representing an edit decision list, wherein said edit decision list has edit decisions with edit data and frame range data.
In the post production of both cinemategraphic films and broadcast quality video, it is always necessary to perform a process of on-line editing in which the original source material is edited to produce the final result, which may in turn be used as a master from which final commercial copies are produced.
An of-line editing procedure allows an edited version to be produced without the risk of damaging the original source material. In this way, many possibilities may be considered before a final version is produced. In this way, it is possible to use off-line editing facilities to produce a list of edit decisions which may then be implemented in the final on-line process.
This procedure of performing an off-line edit followed by an on-line edit has been implemented within digital image processing systems, in which a relatively modest processing system may perform off-line edtiting, upon reduced resolution images, under the control of a graphical user interface. Thus, in this way, image frames may be presented to a user in any form considered appropriate whereafter the system will automatically generate an edit decision list, often recorded onto a standard floppy disc or similar data carrying medium.
An edit decision list may subsequently be used in a conventional editing facility or, alternatively, it may be used in a digital image processing facility at high definition. A system of this type is licensed by the present applicant under the trademark xe2x80x9cFIRExe2x80x9d. In this way, after an edit decision list has been produced, it would be possible to make modifications in an off-line system, resulting in the production of a new edit decision list or in an on-line system, where the on-line edits may be modified such that, in some respect, they differ from the edits proposed by the original list.
Both on-line environments and off-line environments require significant processing facilities and in some situations the level of editing required may be relatively minor. However, presently, unless an edit decision list is edited manually, which is difficult when most lists are only conveyed in machine readable form, it would be necessary to implement changes on a full editing system, which would usually incur significant facility costs and require the reloading of source material.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided data processing apparatus, comprising input devices, a storage device, a processing device and output devices, wherein said storage device is configured to receive data representing an edit decision list; said edit decision list has edit decisions with edit data and frame range data; an input device applies input data to said processing device in response to user manipulations specifying changes to said edit data; and said processing device is configured to identify an associated function of the identified edit data, calculate a modification to said range data in response to said identified function, and write said modified range data to said storage device.
In the preferred embodiment, the processing device is configured to identify a particular entry of an edit decision list in response to the position of the cursor displayed by an output device and said processing device is configured to determine a data type by determining the position of the data type with reference to line delimiters. Preferably, the processing device is configured to identify an associated function by reference to a look-up table.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing data representing an edit decision list, wherein said edit decision list has edit decision with edit data and frame range data, said method comprising steps of loading an edit decision list into addressable memory locations; receiving input data in response to user manipulations of an input device identifying edit data and modifications to said edit data; identifying an associated function of the identified edit data; calculating a modification to said range data in response to said identified function and said user specified modification; and writing said modified range data to addressable storage locations.
Preferably, the edit data represents an edit type and said frame range data represents a range of source frames, wherein said edit type is modified resulting in modifications being made to said source range. Said edit type may represent a cut and said cut may be modified to represent a dissolve or a wipe. Preferably, the dissolve or wipe frames require input frames from two sources and said source range is modified to represent an overlap of frames for the duration of said wipe or said dissolve.
In a preferred embodiment, the edit data represents a unique line identifier and said frame range data represents a range of output destination frames, wherein said unique identifier is modified resulting in a modification to said destination range. The identified function may be a copy, resulting in edit decisions being copied to create additional uniquely identified lines and said destination ranges may be modified to specify new output images. The position of said new lines may be defined by a process of dragging and dropping an identified range of lines within the existing edit decision list.
Preferably, frame ranges are modified by performing calculations upon time codes defining frames in terms of hours, minutes, seconds and frame numbers.